Pallantium was an ancient city near the Tiber

Tiber

The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...

 river on the Italian peninsula. Roman mythology

Roman mythology

Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...

, as recounted in Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

's Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

 for example, states that the city was founded by Evander of Pallene and other ancient Greeks sometime previous to the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

. This myth of the city's origin was significant in ancient Roman mythology because Pallantium became one of the cities that was merged later into ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, thereby tying Rome's origins to the ancient Greek heroes. Other cities in the area were founded by various Italic tribes.

Virgil states that Evander named the city in honor of his son, Pallas

Pallas (son of Evander)

In Roman mythology, Pallas was the son of King Evander. In Virgil's Aeneid, Evander allows Pallas to fight against the Rutuli with Aeneas, who takes him and treats him like his own son Ascanius. In battle, Pallas proves he is a warrior, killing many Rutulians, and compared to the Rutulian Lausus,...

, although Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

 as well as Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Attistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.-Life:...

 say that Evander's birth city was Pallantium, and thus he named the new city after the one in Arcadia.

The origin of Rome and the composition of its people are worthy of remark. They
explain the particular character of its policy, and the exceptional part that fell to it
from the beginning in the midst of other cities. The Roman race was strangely mixed.
The principal element was Latin, and originally from Alba; but these Albans
themselves, according to traditions which no criticism authorizes us to reject, were
composed of two associated, but not confounded, populations. One was the
aboriginal race, real Latins. The other was of foreign origin, and was said to have
come from Troy with Aeneas, the priest-founder; it was, to all appearance, not
numerous, but was influential from the worship and the institutions which it had
brought with it.




These Albans, a mixture of two races, founded Rome on a spot where another city
had already been built — Pallantium, founded by the Greeks. Now, the population
of Pallantium remained in the new city, and the rites of the Greek worship were
preserved there. There was also, where the Capitol afterwards stood, a city which
was said to have been founded by Hercules, the families of which remained distinct
from the rest of the Roman population during the entire continuance of the
republic.




Thus at Rome all races were associated and mingled; there were Latins, Trojans,
and Greeks; there were, a little later, Sabines, and Etruscans. Of the several hills, the
Palatine was the Latin city, after having been the city of Evander. The Capitoline,
after having been the dwelling-place of the companions of Hercules, became the
home of the Sabines of Tatius. The Quirinal received its name from the Sabine
Quirites, or from the Sabine god Quirinus. The Coelian hill appears to have been
inhabited from the beginning by Etruscans. Rome did not seem to be a single city;
it appeared like a confederation of several cities, each one of which was attached by
its origin to another confederation. It was the centre where the Latins, Etruscans,
Sabellians, and Greeks met.




Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges

Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges

Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges was a French historian.Born in Paris, of Breton descent, after studying at the École Normale Supérieure he was sent to the French School at Athens in 1853, he directed some excavations in Chios, and wrote an historical account of the island.After his return he filled...

, The Ancient City, 311

External links

• The Ancient City (pdf) at the McMaster Archive for the History of Economic Thought